


A Moment In Stasis

by coralysendria



Series: Moments [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: The Day of the Doctor, Episode: s04e18 The End of Time (2), Gen, Time War, Time War Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 05:40:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3108176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coralysendria/pseuds/coralysendria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor remembers the last day of the Time War from two different angles.  Minor spoilers for "The Day of the Doctor" and "The End of Time."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Moment In Stasis

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is unbeta'd....

The Doctor stared at the stasis cube painting, at the frozen slice of Gallifrey's last day. The fall of Arcadia. He remembered that day. He had been there. He had seen it, seen all of it: the horror, the bloodshed, the relentless march of the Daleks. The children exterminated in the streets. It was then that he had made the decision to end it all, and he had left a message, burned it into the wall with a gun. The man who never touched weapons, using one to leave a message...and then using a worse one to end the Time War once and for all. There was a reason he didn't call himself the Doctor then.

But he remembered that day twice; he had seen it from another angle, a different pair of eyes. The second time he had lived it, he hadn't set foot on Gallifrey. He had only seen the planet falling into the skies over Earth, as the High Council's last, depraved attempt to survive had brought the two planets into nearly the same space for a brief period. That day had seen the end of that regeneration -- hours after his desperate confrontation with Rassilon and the Master he had climbed out of the crashed TARDIS wearing his current face.

He wondered, now, what he would have done on that last day if he had known then what Rassilon and the High Council planned, if he had known that they intended to follow the Master to Earth. He _had_ known that they had resurrected the Master to fight in the War. They had resurrected everyone -- that was how Rassilon had come to be Lord President again. He hadn't been there for that. He had stayed out of the War, stayed away from Gallifrey. Helped out as he could on the fringes. Until he had crashed on Karn and the Sisterhood had charged him with ending the War. The regeneration they had triggered with their mad potions had grown old trying. He had not been able to end it with diplomacy. He had not been able to end it by fighting. And so he had ended it in the only way left -- by utterly destroying both sides.

He laughed inwardly. And somehow, he had managed to destroy only his own people. Somehow, the Daleks had survived. Oh, not all of them, to be sure. But enough.

The woman on that ship -- what had her name been? Kess? Kress? Whatever her name had been, she had been right. The War had spiralled out of control until it seemed as if all of Time and Space had been burning. Perhaps it had. 

And while Gallifrey burned, Rassilon believed that he had the right to destroy yet another planet. But Rassilon was thwarted, and Gallifrey was gone, save for reminders like this painting which had somehow been on Earth for hundreds of years.

"What happened?" he asked Kate Stewart, returning to the present.

"Easier to show you," she responded, and led the way further into the gallery. As the Doctor followed her, he heard a telephone ring. His mouth crooked in a smile. Never without their phones, these humans. Never without their phones.


End file.
